Editing Ambient music (section)

===1970s===
Developing in the 1970s, ambient music stemmed from the [[Experimental music|experimental]] and [[synthesizer]]-oriented styles of the period.

Between 1974 and 1976, American composer [[Laurie Spiegel]] created her seminal work ''The Expanding Universe'', created on a computer-analog hybrid system called GROOVE.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Walls|first=Seth Colter|title=An Electronic-Music Classic Reborn|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/an-electronic-music-classic-reborn|access-date=2020-12-09|magazine=The New Yorker|date=17 September 2012|language=en-us}}</ref> In 1977, her composition, ''Music of the Spheres'' was included on Voyager 1 and 2's [[Voyager Golden Record|Golden Record]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Voyager – Sounds on the Golden Record|url=https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/sounds/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=voyager.jpl.nasa.gov|language=en}}</ref>

In April 1975, [[Suzanne Ciani]] gave two performances on her [[Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments|Buchla synthesizer]] – one at the WBAI Free music store and one at [[Phill Niblock|Phil Niblock's]] loft.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-04-03|title=INTERVIEW: Suzanne Ciani On... Her Buchla Beginnings, Talking Dishwashers and Why No One Got Electronic Music In the '70s|url=http://www.self-titledmag.com/interview-suzanne-ciani-on-her-buchla-beginnings-talking-dishwashers-and-why-no-one-got-electronic-music-in-the-70s/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=self-titled|language=en-US}}</ref> These performances were released on an archival album in 2016 entitled ''Buchla Concerts 1975''. According to the record label, these concerts were part live presentation, part grant application and part educational demonstration.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Buchla Concerts 1975|url=https://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/suzanne-ciani-buchla-concerts-1975/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Finders Keepers Records|language=en}}</ref>

However, it was not until Brian Eno coined the term in the mid-70s that ambient music was defined as a genre. Eno went on to record 1975's ''[[Discreet Music]]'' with this in mind, suggesting that it be listened to at "comparatively low levels, even to the extent that it frequently falls below the threshold of audibility",<ref name=":0" /> referring to Satie's quote about his ''musique d'ameublement''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tamm|first=Eric|title=Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound.|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1995|isbn=0-306-80649-5}}</ref>

Other contemporaneous musicians creating ambient-style music at the time included Jamaican [[dub music]]ians such as [[King Tubby]],<ref name="eem">{{cite book |title=Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture |last=Holmes |first=Thom |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0203929599 |page=403 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCthQ-bec-QC |access-date=1 April 2013}}</ref> Japanese [[electronic music]] composers such as [[Isao Tomita]]<ref name="weekender">[http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2013/01/isao-tomita-qa/ Q&A with Isao Tomita] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424002033/http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2013/01/isao-tomita-qa/ |date=2017-04-24 }}, ''[[Tokyo Weekender]]''</ref><ref name="vice">[https://www.vice.com/en/article/isao-tomita-obituary/ Isao Tomita, an Early Major Japanese Electronic Composer, Is Dead] , ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]''</ref> and [[Ryuichi Sakamoto]] as well as the [[psychoacoustics|psychoacoustic]] soundscapes of [[Irv Teibel]]'s ''[[Environments (album series)|Environments]]'' series, and German experimental bands such as [[Popol Vuh (German band)|Popol Vuh]], [[Cluster (band)|Cluster]], [[Kraftwerk]], [[Harmonia (band)|Harmonia]], [[Ash Ra Tempel]] and [[Tangerine Dream]]. Mike Orme of ''[[Stylus Magazine]]'' describes the work of [[Kosmische Musik|Berlin school]] musicians as "laying the groundwork" for ambient.<ref name="Orme">{{cite web |last1=Orme |first1=Mike |title=The Bluffer's Guide: The Berlin School |url=http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/the-berlin-school.html |website=Stylus Magazine |access-date=17 June 2022 |date=7 December 2006 |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216204735/http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/the-berlin-school.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The impact the rise of the synthesizer in modern music had on ambient as a genre cannot be overstated; as Ralf Hutter of early electronic pioneers [[Kraftwerk]] said in a 1977 ''Billboard'' interview: "Electronics is beyond nations and colors...with electronics everything is possible. The only limit is with the composer".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php|title=AmbientMusicGuide.com – A history of ambient|website=Ambientmusicguide.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313104100/http://ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php|archive-date=2016-03-13|url-status=dead|access-date=2016-04-05}}</ref>  The [[Yellow Magic Orchestra]] developed a distinct style of ambient [[electronic music]] that would later be developed into [[ambient house]] music.<ref>{{AllMusic |class=artist |id=p5886 |label=Yellow Magic Orchestra |access-date=2011-05-25 }}</ref>

==== Brian Eno ====
[[File:Brian_Eno_-_TopPop_1974_11.png|thumb|Brian Eno (pictured in 1974) is credited with coining the term "ambient music".]]
[[File:Minimoog Voyager XL, owned by Brian Eno.jpg|thumb|Minimoog Voyager XL, owned by Brian Eno]]
The English producer [[Brian Eno]] is credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s. He said other artists had been creating similar music, but that "I just gave it a name. Which is exactly what it needed ... By naming something you create a difference. You say that this is now real. Names are very important."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/17/brian-eno-interview-paul-morley|title=On gospel, Abba and the death of the record: an audience with Brian Eno {{!}} Interview|last=Morley|first=Paul|date=2010-01-17|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-10-21}}</ref> He used the term to describe music that is different from forms of canned music like [[Muzak]].<ref name=enotvf>{{Cite web|url=https://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-essential-guide-to-brian-eno-in-10-records/|title=The essential guide to Brian Eno in 10 records|first=Chris|last=May|website=Thevinylfactory.com|date=12 April 2016|access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref>

In the liner notes for his 1978 album [[Ambient 1: Music for Airports|''Ambient 1:'' ''Music for Airports'']], Eno wrote:<ref name=":2" />
 
{{Blockquote|text=Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncrasies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to "brighten" the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and leveling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.|sign=|source=}}

Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician", termed his experiments "treatments" rather than traditional performances.<ref name=":2">Brian Eno, [ ''Music for Airports'' liner notes], September 1978</ref><ref name="potter2002">{{cite book |title=Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass |last=Potter |first=Keith |year=2002 |edition= rev. pbk from 2000 hbk |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01501-1 |pages=[ 91] }} (Quoting Brian Eno saying "La Monte Young is the daddy of us all" with endnote 113 p. [ 349] referencing it as "Quoted in Palmer, ''A Father Figure for the Avant-Garde'', p. 49".)</ref>